Israel to announce expansion of West Bank settlements, say sources

The Israeli government has reportedly informed the US of plans to expand the number of settlements in the occupied West Bank by up to 4,000.

Israeli officials told Axios that the Israeli Civil Administration Planning and Zoning Committee “will convene before the end of June to approve the new settlement plans”. The news site suggested that construction plans to connect the Kfar Adumim and Maale Adumim settlements, an area known as E1, with occupied East Jerusalem might be rolled out.

The Joe Biden administration is “vehemently opposed” to new building in the Israeli settlements, over fears of “undermining the prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, added Axios.

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reliant on a governing coalition of hard-right politicians that is “key to maintaining his grip on power”, said The Hill. But their political demands, including the advancement of plans to annex the West Bank and permit settlement construction, “have triggered pushback” from the US.

A White House spokesperson would not confirm Axios’s report. But the spokesperson said that “we have long made clear our concerns about additional settlements in the West Bank, that we don’t want to see actions taken that are going to make a two-state solution that much more difficult to achieve”.

The expansion reports come after the Israeli government postponed a meeting on the E1 area settlement plans last week. Haaretz reported that Netanyahu had shelved the plans due to “criticism from local Palestinian residents and the international community”.

But Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich insisted: “We will have big news for the settlements in the West Bank imminently.”

If the controversial E1 settlement is constructed, it would “divide the occupied West Bank in two”, said Middle East Eye.

Building an Israeli settlement there “would prevent Palestinian territorial contiguity between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, which would make it much harder to establish a Palestinian state in the future”, said Axios.